The year 2019 is shaping up to be quite a year in elections following the South African Independent Electoral Commission’s timeline release for the country’s national elections, suggesting it will be held in May next year. In this poll, relevant voters will decide whether or not the incumbent president, Cyril Ramaphosa, will remain in power.
Reuters reports that: “The commission said the election would take place sometime between May 7 and August 5 next year but Ramaphosa, who has the final say on the date, has previously said he wants the vote before the end of May.”
The three leading parties in next year’s elections will be the governing African National Congress (ANC), led by current state President Cyril Ramaphosa; the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Mmusi Maimane; and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema.
In May 2019, voters will elect 400 members of the national assembly by proportional representation. The president will then be elected by the national assembly after the vote. Additionally, the provincial legislature and premiers of each of South Africa’s nine provinces will also be elected.
The ANC, Nelson Mandela’s party, has been in power since 1994 when the country moved away from apartheid to a ‘non-racial democracy.’ Unfortunately, its popularity has declined since, due to several incidences of corruption and poor governance which tarnished its image during former President Jacob Zuma’s tenure. While the ANC is primarily made up of black people, the Democratic Alliance has become the default party for the whites, ‘coloureds’ and, increasingly, Asians. The party has been accused of aggressively seeking support from the black South Africans as its presidential candidate, Maimane is a black man. The EFF, on the other hand, “has radical economic and social policies; among other things, it calls for the expropriation of white-owned property without compensation.”
Most political analysts familiar with South Africa expect the ANC to retain its majority in the nation next year but, as Reuters reports, “the size of any victory would dictate Ramaphosa’s ability to continue his economic and investment drive considering the deep rifts in the party.”
